Chapter 18 Chapter 17 Improving the system: sound management and strategic operation

In the 1930s, in the face of the global economic depression, Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd. successfully tided over the difficulties through the measure of "halving production and never laying off employees". The Matsushita Electric Corporation has grown into a big business.It can also be seen from this that Konosuke Matsushita's grasp of the current situation and his extraordinary strategy. When the scale of any enterprise is small, the enterprise leaders can single-handedly and effectively control the large and small affairs of the entire enterprise. However, as the enterprise expands and the number of employees increases, the enterprise leaders will gradually feel powerless, resulting in the overall or partial loss of control of the enterprise. .Konosuke Matsushita was also constantly thinking about the management system, and later he made an astonishing move to implement the "Business Department System".

The "Business Department System" re-divides the existing branch factories and all employees of the Matsushita Electric Manufacturing Factory into three departments: the first is the radio department, and Toshio Iue is appointed as the minister; the second is the bicycle lights and Kaoru Iue served as the director of the battery department; the third department was the distribution and electric heater department, and Matsushita Konosuke himself served as the director. Konosuke Matsushita believes that: "Business department system", a decentralized management method, can enable the company's operations to absorb the strengths of small businesses, especially flexibility.The head of each department is an independent person in charge, and he is fully responsible for the manufacture and sales of the department's products; each department adopts independent accounting, and it is never allowed to make up for the losses of another department with the profits of one department, that is, to abolish the previous The mutual profit and loss method of each department.All departments should take responsibility to strive for operating profit with their own efforts and creations, and make contributions to the growth and expansion of the company with this profit.

Since then, Konosuke Matsushita has written this "business department system" into the seventh volume of "Panasonic Company History Materials": "The essence of this system, according to the current conclusion, is that the hardware organization system of Matsushita Electric is the most prominent. One of the most important is the business department system. This system was implemented in 1932 and is the product of Panasonic’s rapid development. The direct cause of the business department system is the expansion of the company’s scale. At the beginning of the business, Konosuke Matsushita had a small stall and everything was managed by He manages it by himself, although it is hard work, he can still cope with it. The development of his career has caused things to be complicated and confusing. Konosuke Matsushita has already felt the complexity. He wants to assign things to others, and his consistent concept Delegating power is to be delegated, so he came up with the idea of ​​setting up a business department for decentralized organization. He divided the company into three departments: one is the radio department, the other is the bicycle lamp and dry battery department, and the third is the distribution line appliance and electric heating Manufacturing and sales department of appliances. This time, the sales department is under the third business department, and other departments do not have special sales organizations. The sales of each department are actually handled by the company. Konosuke Matsushita feels that the above-mentioned decentralization The system was not thorough enough to be worthy of the name, so the effect was less. Based on this understanding, in March 1934, a further reorganization was carried out. This time, the original third department of electric heating appliances manufacturing was independent as the fourth department .More importantly, there are sales departments in each department, which are responsible for the sales of each department.” As a result, the hardware organization system that Panasonic has adopted for a long time was formed in this way.

The characteristic of this system is that from research and development to manufacturing, sales and publicity, it strictly implements the full responsibility system of each organizational unit within the company.The ministers of these business departments all set up accounts in their own names, and internal accounting is carried out for the economy; of course, the work is also fully determined by themselves.In this way, each division is essentially an independent agency. Konosuke Matsushita established a business department when he decentralized powers. He had two basic intentions. This is actually the role of the decentralization system.The first is the clear division of business management responsibilities.After decentralization, the power belongs to each business department, and the business performance also belongs to the business department.In this way, it is clear at a glance which business department is in good condition, and it is no longer the past situation where the profits and losses of various departments complement each other.This is what is now called clear responsibility, right and benefit.The second is to train and train managers.Each department bears its own responsibilities and cannot rely on the company or other departments. Everything depends on itself, and the talents of management personnel must be cultivated and tempered.This system has indeed trained a lot of management talents for Matsushita Electric.

It is not difficult to see that the business department system has the following advantages. (1) Not only can the enterprise expand smoothly, but it can also solve the problem that Konosuke Matsushita cannot do what he wants; (2) Each business department is a responsibility center, with clear division of product responsibilities, clear profit and loss, and easy assessment; (3) Each business department has the characteristics of a small-scale enterprise, with relatively single products and dedicated to technical research and product development, so many technical experts can be cultivated;

(4) Since the directors of each business department are responsible for all the responsibilities of profit and loss, they will naturally have a strong consumption orientation - attach great importance to and try their best to meet the needs of consumers; (5) A business unit that makes profits will never distribute profits to another business unit that is losing money.Each division had to figure out how to make money on its own.Therefore, each business department will not have the idea of ​​dependence, and will do its best to put itself in the same industry to compete in the electrical industry.

The system of decentralized organization of business divisions was the first in Japan at that time. Even the United States, where business management is relatively advanced, only a few large companies such as DuPont and General Motors had this system before 1930.Obviously, this approach of Matsushita Konosuke is one step ahead of others, which has benefited him a lot.In the future, although this system has some subtle changes, it is still the same in general and remains basically unchanged, forming a major feature of Panasonic. Now, the advantages of conglomerate operations are very obvious, so mergers and reorganizations happen from time to time.How the various organizational units of the group operate, the experience of Panasonic's business department can be used for reference.

Sales is the intermediate link connecting products and customers, and the most critical part of operation.Without strong sales, even manufacturers, not to mention distributors, cannot stay in business.Therefore, a sound marketing system is very important. Matsushita Electric not only has a unique organization, personnel system and norms, but also has its own set of unique systems for sales, the most critical part of its operations.Most of this set of systems was explored and summed up in Panasonic's business practice, and many of them are "No. 1 in Japan". The sales system is based on the concept of sales.In this regard, Konosuke Matsushita has three basic points: one is to attach importance to sales, the other is to treat dealers as friends, and the third is to start everything from customers.Based on this concept, Matsushita Electric has established the following sales system.

(1) Alliance store system.This system is intended to strengthen the relationship between the company and dealers and dealerships.The company's operating personnel often go out to ask dealers for advice and opinions, and dealers also exchange ideas with each other.This system conveys Panasonic's business philosophy, sincerity, and reputation to dealers, mobilizing dealers' enthusiasm for selling Panasonic products. (2) International Brand Sales Commodities Trade Association.This is actually an extension and rationalization of the above-mentioned alliance store system.In order to establish a strong sales network for international brand products, Konosuke Matsushita has often called alliance stores near the Osaka area for meetings since 1957 to study how to get along with each other and sell products, and then formed a commercial organization called "International Commodity Association". , making a fuss around Panasonic's most famous international brand is tantamount to Panasonic's own opening thousands of franchised stores.The current store has a certain counter, which actually has such a role, but it is a few levels behind the association founded by Konosuke Matsushita.

(3) Establish sales company.The above are all about the sales promotion system for retail, but this one is about wholesale.This kind of sales company, which is mainly responsible for wholesale, was jointly established by Matsushita Electric and distributors from all over the world.Although the ways of cooperation are different, the purpose is to improve the operating efficiency of the agency.If some dealers request, Matsushita Electric can also fund and organize such an organization with them.In this way, not only the sales company can set up retail stores to provide goods in a timely manner, but also actively promote the opening of more retail stores, or promote the turnover of retail stores through services. In August 1950, the first international brand product sales company was established in Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku, and several such sales companies were established every year thereafter.

(4) Installment payment system.Konosuke Matsushita's business philosophy is to provide customers with low-priced goods, and this system is the extreme embodiment of this philosophy in sales.Konosuke Matsushita imitated Ford and adopted the strategy of high sales and low cost, and implemented the method of installment payment in 1951 when the radio became popular.This approach further stimulated the already booming radio market and brought huge profits to Matsushita Electric.This approach was unprecedented in Japan at the time.Since then, many other home appliances of Panasonic have also been marketed in this way. The above sales promotion systems of Panasonic Electric are now well-known and widely used by businessmen, but they were the first examples at that time.Some of them, today, many businesses have not been able to apply well, such as the association system.It can also be seen from this that the contemporary significance of Panasonic's management secrets cannot be ignored.One of the important conditions for management is to mobilize people's enthusiasm and make them give full play to their talents; and this cannot be obtained by enthusiasm and individual behavior, he needs a set of strict guidelines. Successful old-fashioned companies have their own set of systems and principles, which are revealed so that the top and bottom can follow the rules and regulations.As an important aspect of an enterprise, personnel is of course the same. The personnel policy of Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd. has seven basic principles. In 1957, Takahashi Arataro, the director of personnel at that time, visited 34 departments across the country to give lectures in order to gain popular support. The seven basic policies of Panasonic are: First, you must have a full and thorough understanding of the basic operations of Panasonic. Second, we must realize that the foundation of good management lies in people. Third, there must be sincerity and "big love" in personnel affairs.That is to say, no matter what you do in terms of personnel, you must carry it out with affection.Because in any occasion, sincerity can move people.At the same time, there must be "big love", not a small love of flattery and small favors.With great love, you can care about people's progress and growth in the long run, be strict when you should be strict, and criticize when you should be criticized. Fourth, not only use power to drive others, but also use understanding and trust to make people work spontaneously. Fifth, to cultivate a talent, one must first give him appropriate goals and hopes.Only with goals and hope can we fully mobilize people's enthusiasm and creativity.Therefore, it is necessary to always give strong will to subordinates so that they have goals and hope. Sixth, he must be empowered and held accountable.Responsibility and power should go hand in hand.If subordinates and employees are allowed to do things they are not responsible for, work will be loosened, delayed, and even have adverse consequences.In the same way, if only responsibility is given without power, the result is the same.Therefore, he must be given the power equivalent to the responsibility, and let him do it freely within the responsibility and power, and make the most effective creation and invention.Of course, if you encounter something that is related to the overall situation, it is still appropriate to ask your subordinates to ask their superiors for instructions. Seventh, good management must make employees cooperate sincerely.To cultivate talents, we must rely on the society, and more importantly, we must rely on ourselves.Therefore, the operator must have a long-term and continuous talent training policy to increase the ability of employees and enable them to grow in personality. Konosuke Matsushita's personal and Matsushita Electric's growth experience made him pay more attention to on-the-job training as opposed to school education.Combining this with his talent thinking, it has produced a complete policy of educating talents that Panasonic has implemented for a long time.This policy is not only applied to Panasonic, but also has enlightening significance for other companies.The following is an outline of this policy. (1) The purpose of cultivating talents.Carry out the basic policy of operation; improve specialized business ability; cultivate operation and management ability; expand horizon and form personality. (2) Implementation policy.Through practice, develop practical working ability.The method is based on each individual's self-enlightenment, with individual guidance from the superior as the core, and practical education at the workplace as the main body.Continuous implementation according to the long-term plan, there should be no beginning and no end. (3) Work organization.The main cadres in the workplace shall take full responsibility for the talent education of the employees in the workplace.The management supervisors of various departments and workplaces are fully responsible for the employees within their jurisdiction. (4) Under the director of each workplace, a person in charge of research will be appointed to help the director and superiors carry out talent education. (5) Each functional department shall have a special person in charge to help the director and superiors carry out the work of cultivating talents. (6) In the personnel department, it is necessary to carry out the following business of cultivating talents: contact and assist with various functional departments and business sites on talent cultivation; train and implement the training plan for management cadres; plan and implement the training of new employees.